Conceptually interesting but...

Not a great listen. Narration is ok and the ideas behind the story are interesting but it did come across as something the author probably wrote when he was 16.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Distinctly mediocre with bad narration.

The premise of this story is interesting i.e. red-shirts realising they get killed off and doing something about it but I found the plot beyond that less than fulfilling. It just seemed to take the easy route and at any given moment you sort of know what will happen in the next 15-20mins (after the initial hour at least).

The characters were all samey and we were introduced to too many, too quickly to really have a firm grip on who was who (in my opinion anyway). I get why Wil Wheaton was the narrator but someone who could at least give the women's voices a slightly feminine inflection would have been nice. All the speech is read identically which is a bit of a pain.

No-one of the characters were that great but they weren't that bad either. A bit meh overall. I did laugh out loud on occasion though so some of it was funny.

The worst thing though, by far and away, was the repeated use of said. "Duvall said." "Henson said." "Keene said" etc. Every line of dialogue is appended as such and in an audiobook it is unbearable. You sort of get used to it after an hour but it never really goes away. I wish there was an abridged version with some of that cut.

Finally, the 'codas' make up 2+ hours worth of extra anecdotes about the characters at the end and they were dull. I would not recommend this book unless you really like sci-fi, trek and Scalzi.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

An enjoyable “Star Trek aligned” sci-fi tale

An enjoyable tale, with an interesting group of characters and an interesting tale that unfolds.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Great idea

I’ve listened to quite a few of Scalzi books now and loved them especially when Wil narrates as he really brings the characters to life. Being a fan of Star Trek I loved the idea of the narrative. I enjoyed it but not as much as I thought I would and agree about the character epilogues being a bit superfluous.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Great Book But Annoying Over Use of The Word "said

Like a previous reviewer stated this author really needs to learn another word for "said"; Yes, almost every line contains "...said" or "said...", it really does get annoying and you can almost hear the annoyance in the voice of the narrator.

The storyline is pretty good and I did enjoy it; a subtle, or perhaps not so subtle, parody of Star Trek which mocks the fact that in almost every Star Trek episode you knew who was going to die as soon as the "away party" beamed down; those poor guys in red.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

44 people found this helpful

fun idea, well narrated

it was a nice conceit but the codas at the end felt a bit odd. really enjoyed the narration but the text does tend to be a bit "he said, she said, he said, etc.",which can be a bit wearing to listen to. I still devoured the book tho!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

And he said, and she said, and he said....

It was a great read and the first Scalzi I have picked up. However the audio production needs some work. Will does a great job overall however the immersion can be broken somewhat with him having to read each amd every "he said" or "she said" the dialogue can be quite short and punchy and looses something with Will having to put these in all the time. His voice work is more than good enough to be able to follow which character is saying what without the constant prompting from the text. Didn't ruin the book but was an annoyance. Still 5* overall

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Fantastic

I loved every second. from the sci-fi humour, to the borderline bizarre codas at the end. it feels like a love letter to a genre by the extras, to the writers at points.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

fantastic book

it is an entertaining book. i recommend reading the first part and the 3 codas after a break. they have a more serious tone and kind of make you forget about how fun kt was to read it

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Wonderful, engaging and easy listen

If you are familiar with Star Trek and enjoy mind-bending kinds of stories (like time travel or parallel universes) and enjoy rather snarky narratives you will enjoy this book. It's just fun.

Wil Wheaton's performance is both fitting and extremely well done. The production values are very high as I have come to expect whenever Gabrielle de Cuir and Stefan Rudnicki are involved.

One negative, there are an excessive number of "he said" "she saids", which I cannot explain and in audio was extremely annoying, because you can't gloss over it like on the printed page. I wish they'd edited some of them out. The problem was exacerbated by the often one or two-word interjections followed by "Dahl said" or "Duvall said" or "Hester said" or WHOEVER said" by that time I didn't much care, who said it, I just wanted it to stop. But then I got over it and enjoyed the story.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!